Trail Tails: 'Shore' to have a serene walk at Mill Pond

Beautiful scenery, wildlife and a shady, breezy walk with an occasional wallow in the water await you and your dog at Westborough's Mill Pond.

Mill Pond, a SuAsCo reservoir (an acronym for the Sudbury, Assabet and Concord Rivers watershed), offers scenic trails through two forested conservation parcels, the 100-acre Headwaters Conservation Area on the south shore and the 109-acre parcel of the Westborough Country Club just to the east of Mill Pond, as well as the shoreline Westborough Charm Bracelet trail.

I recommend the shore trail for summer dog walking. You can save the drier and hotter trails of the country club and Headwaters to explore during the cooler months.

There are three ways to access Mill Pond's shore trail. If you are new to the experience, I suggest you start at the Mill Road boat ramp area. There is plenty of parking as well as a good spot for your dog to soak himself down first.

From here, you also have three choices of direction in which to head out. You could cross the street from the information kiosk and explore the small Westborough Country Club trails that connect this area to the town-owned golf course as well as the Gibbons School. But why would you go this way first when the cool water beckons?

The North Shore Trail travels along the dam, cuts down across the field and enters the wildest and woodsiest section of the shore trail. It is only about a half-hour, shady walk to where the trail ends at the Fisher Street entrance, which offers a great panoramic view of the pond from water level. While the opportunities for your dog to access the water are not constant, they do seem to come right when you need them.

The same is true for the South Shore Trail, although this section seems more open and airy. You can find the start of this trail just down the Mill Road boat ramp and behind a small white building. Here you will find a wood plank walkway, a wildflower meadow and nice spots to enjoy the water and the view of Mill Pond. There are some spots to watch out for, however. A small part of the trail is closing up due to encroaching meadow rue, jewel weed and multiflora rose, but it is walkable at the moment with some light bushwhacking. The trail also briefly travels along private land and later an asphalt road (leads to Andrews Street entrance) that is a haven for biting flies. This is also the longest portion without access to water (10 to 15 minutes).

The reward is Osprey Point, which offers a view of osprey and blue herons nesting in the dead trees left behind when the reservoir was created. You can reach it quicker by taking the Headwaters Conservation Area entrance at the end of Andrews Street. Just take the Osprey Point Trail past the butterfly garden. About 10 minutes past Osprey Point the trail is cut off by a large creek (the map seems to say that this is the Assabet River) but continues on the opposite side. I would not recommend attempting to cross right now due to recent heavy rains. It's a nice spot to stop, though.

There are two trail maps and information available at this Web site: http://www.westboroughcharm.org/guide/index.php. Just click on Country Club and HCA, and you can put the two maps together for the complete map.

Trail Tails, a feature on great places to walk with your four-legged friends, runs the first Thursday of the month.